Arnold Wall
by George J. Dance Arnold Wall (15 November 15, 1869 - March 29, 1966) was a New Zealand poet, academic, prose writer, and radio broadcaster. Life Wall was born in Nuwara Eliya, Ceylon, the 6th of 9 children of Mary Ann (Dixon) and George Wall, a coffee planter and merchant. He was sent to live in England at a young age, and went to boarding school near London in 1879. As a young man he worked as a teacher while studying part-time at the University of London, graduating with an M.A. in 1893. He then taught at the University of Correspondence College in Cambridge, and in 1897 obtained a B.A.from the University of Cambridge.Tony Deverson, Wall, Arnold, Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 1-April 1, 2014. Web, Apr. 12, 2014. In 1899 Wall became the chair of English language and literature at Canterbury College, a position he held until his retirement in 1932.Arnold Wall, Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature (edited by Roger Robinson & Nelson Wattie), Oxford University Press, 1998. Answers.com, Web, Apr. 11, 2014. On November 13, 1901, he married Elsie Kent Monro (Curnow), who would bear him two daughers and a son. His wife died in 1924, and he never remarried. After retiring from Canterbury in 1932, Wall achieved popular recognition through a series of articles in the Press under the title 'Our mother tongue', which established him as an authority on the pronunciation and use of English, and which he turned into an influential book, New Zealand English (1938). From 1955 through 1961 he hosted a popular radio show under the title, "The Queen's English." Forced to discontinue broadcasting due to failing eyesight, at the age of 91, he began another column, "The Jeweller's Window", which ran for another 5 years. In 1965 he published an autobiography, Long and Happy. He died in Christchurch the following year. Writing Wall was a formalist. The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature calls his poetry "mostly traditional rhyming verse, intellectual and reflective rather than passionate in tone, but with a very broad sweep of theme and subject." The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography says of Wall: "His poetry is distinguished by its technical skill, its elegance of expression, and its close and witty observation of human and natural phenomena. Despite this, and his prolific output (he published 10 collections), Wall's work has been largely ignored by New Zealand critics." Allen Curnow, who included Wall's poetry in A Book of New Zealand Verse (1945) and the Penguin Book of New Zealand Verse (1960), wrote of him in 1965: "Conscience must tell any annotator of the New Zealand verse record that there is more art and less pretence in his kind of work than in a good deal that now passes for poet's currency." Recognition Wall became a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1956. The University of New Zealand made him an honorary doctor of literature in 1960. Publications Poetry *''David Willshire''. Watford, UK: Peacock Printer, 1891. *''At the Crossroads, and other poems''. London: D. Nutt, 1894. *''Blank Verse Lyrics, and other poems''. Long Acre, UK: D. Nutt, 1900. *''New Poems''. London: Walter Scott, 1908. *''Of the War: 24 sonnets''. Auckland: Whitcombe & Tombs, 1920. *''London Lost, and other poems''. Auckland: Whitcombe & Tombes, 1922. *''The Order of Release, and other poems''. Auckland: Whitcombe & Tombes, 1934. *''Theme and Variations''. Christchurch, NZ: Whitcombe & Tombs, 1937. *''About our Birds: A collection of verses''. Wellington: Whitcombe & Tombs, 1943. *''The Pioneers, and other poems''. Wellington: A.H. and A.W. Reed, 1948. Non-fiction *''The Botany of Christchurch''. Christchurch, NZ: Lyttleton Times, 1922 **revised edition, Wellington: A.H. and A.W. Reed, 1953. *''Ferns of the Port Hills''. Christchurch, NZ: Times Printing, 1922. *''A Run off the Chain: Impressions of travel in Ceylon, Italy, Great Britain and Norway''. Christchurch, NZ: Whitcombe & Tombs, 1928. *''The Mother Tongue in New Zealand''. Wellington & Dunedin, NZ: A.H. and A.W. Reed, 1936. *''New Zealand English: A guide to the correct pronunciation of English with special reference to New Zealand conditions and problems''. Christchurch, NZ: Whitcombe & Tombs, 1938. *''The botanical names of the flora of New Zealand, their origin, history and meaning, with hints on pronunciation'' (with Harry Howard Barton Allan). Christchurch, NZ: Whitcombe & Tombs, 1950. *''The Queen's English: A commentary for New Zealand'' (introduction by Alan Mulgan). Christchurch, NZ: Pegasus Press, 1958. *''Long and Happy: An autobiography''. Wellington, A.H. & A.W. Reed, 1965. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Arnold Wall, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Apr. 12, 2014. See also *List of New Zealand poets References External links ;Poems *"A Time Will Come" ;Books *Arnold Wall at the University of Victoria ;About *Arnold Wall in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography *[http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=DOM19090306.2.73.2 1909 review of Wall's New Poems] Category:1869 births Category:1966 deaths Category:New Zealand academics Category:New Zealand mountain climbers Category:New Zealand botanists Category:New Zealand poets Category:New Zealand broadcasters Category:Sri Lankan emigrants to New Zealand Category:University of Canterbury faculty Category:20th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Formalist poets Category:Poets